I enjoy the Lee Swanson Research emails. Obviously, many of the research updates are intended to help them sell supplements. But not all of them. They don’t sell fresh fruit. This one describes research showing that fiber eaten in your food prevents heart disease.

Lee Swanson Research Update

More Fiber Means Less Cardiovascular Disease

January 2, 2014

A moderate increase in daily fiber intake can yield huge benefits for cardiovascular health, according to recent research. In a systemic review and meta-analysis published in BMJ, researchers from the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Leeds, UK, looked at 22 studies published from January 1990 to August 2013 that furnished data on dietary fiber and primary events of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and coronary heart disease (CHD). Because their focus was on the primary prevention of CVD, the researchers only included studies whose subjects were drawn from a generally healthy population.

The CVD event risk fell steadily with increasing fiber intakes, with a 9% risk reduction per 7 gram increase in total daily fiber consumption, which is equivalent to about two to four servings of fruit per day. Among the different fiber sources evaluated, the greatest benefit was observed with insoluble fiber, where a 7 gram increase in daily intake was associated with an 18% reduction in CVD event risk. The study authors concluded that diets high in fiber “…specifically from [food] sources and rich in insoluble type fiber—are significantly associated with lower risk of CHD and CVD.”